AMA: Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement, Andrew Zinger on Discovery Tactics

Great question - I find incorporating customer feedback and the insights you learn from discovery discussions into your sales process is key to driving future engagement and increasing your deal win rates. Here’s how I approach it: 1. Structured Documentation – Ensure your sellers are capturing customer/prospect insights in a standardized way (e.g., using Gong, Salesforce, or methodology templates) to track customer/prospect pain points, priorities, and desired outcomes. 2. Tailor Your Value Propositions – Then you can use these discovery insights to refine messaging, aligning your solutions directly with the customer’s needs and challenges. This makes sales conversations more relevant and compelling to hte people you are connecting with. 3. Leverage Competitive & Industry Insights – I find it key to review feedback across accounts and opportunities to identify trends, customer objections, and gaps in your positioning. It is vital that these insights get fed back to your product, product marketing and sales teams for future adjustments. 4. Training & Enablement – Enablement is key to the success of any sales process - from new hires to continuous learning. To help engrain this into your organization, equip sellers with playbooks and frameworks that incorporate real customer insights, enabling your sales team to adapt selling strategies based on real life experiences rather than relying on generic pitches. 5. Feedback to Product & Marketing – As mentioned above, work to ensure these customer insights flow back into the organization, influencing roadmap decisions, content strategy, and your competitive positioning.

Great question - I think it is just as important to 'disqualify' deals than it is to 'qualify' them in - this allows you to focus on deals that have the greatest opportunity to close. Of course, in order to tell whether you should move on, or dig into a deal, you should consider these factors: • Level of Prospect Engagement – If the prospect is still engaging but seems to be moving without urgency, I would suggest you keep nurturing the opportunity. • Compelling Events – If they have a compelling business reason/event, that includes a clear timeline or internal blocker (e.g., budget cycle, internal approvals), keep it open and set a follow-up plan that includes customer stories that demonstrate an understanding of how you have helped companies solve similar challenges. • Lack of Urgency or Fit – If they’re unresponsive or don’t see enough value right now, close-lost it and have SDR requalify later.

I am so glad you asked this question - discovery and storytelling is such a huge passion of mine, so happy to share my perspective: Best Practices I See From Top-Performing Sellers 1. Deep Discovery During Every Interaction – High performers never stop doing discovery - every conversation is an opportunity to learn more from your prospects/customers. While doing discovery, they don’t just ask closed ended (yes/no) questions, instead they focus on open-ended questioning (e.g., “Can you tell me more about that?” or “What happens if this problem isn’t solved?”). They uncover not just pain points but the underlying business drivers. 2. Structured and Flexible Approach – They follow a repeatable discovery framework but remain flexible, adjusting based on the conversation rather than checking boxes. 3. Active Listening & Strategic Note-Taking – Instead of rushing to pitch, they actively listen to their audience, ensure they summarize key points, and document these insights that allow for them to reference in future conversations (e.g., using Gong or CRM notes to track recurring themes). 4. Customer-Centric Positioning – Sellers will then translate what they learn into highly relevant recommendations, aligning their messaging with the prospect’s specific needs instead of delivering generic value props. 5. Multi-Threading Early – Top sellers engage multiple stakeholders early, and often, ensuring broader buy-in and reducing the risk of deals stalling due to a single point of contact.

Ah...this is a situation every seller with encounter. The way I see it, a good way to phrase a question when you feel a prospect isn’t sharing the full story with you is to ask in a way that encourages them to open up while being non-confrontational. You could say something like: “I want to make sure I fully understand your situation so we can find the best solution. Are there any other challenges or factors we haven’t covered yet that might be important for us to consider?” This approach shows you’re focused on their needs and that you’re asking for their perspective to better serve them.

Here are some of my tips on how to qualify an internal customer champion A true champion should have: 1. Influence – Can they drive internal conversations and decisions? 2. Access – Do they have direct connections to decision-makers? 3. Advocacy – Are they invested in your solution and willing to push for it when you are not in the room? 4. Knowledge – Do they understand the business problem and see your solution as the answer? To validate potential champions, ask questions like: • “Who else needs to be involved in this decision?” • “How have similar decisions been made in the past?” • “What challenges could come up internally, and how can we address them together?” If They’re Not a Strong Champion • Ask for Introductions – Position it as bringing in the right expertise: • “To make sure this aligns with your company’s goals, who else should we loop in?” • Grow the army – Offer resources that help them build internal buy-in. • Leverage Leadership – If you have a senior contact, use them to request an intro from the top down. If they resist, they may not be fully bought in—keep testing their commitment before investing too much.